We shot these ducks just the other day in North Dakota. All the Drakes were like the one on the left. Full color. The duck in the middle has hen stomach and wing feathers, hen feet, and maybe a black duck bill. I guess I’m wondering if there are any biologists on this forum that can ID this. It’s either a mallard duck in eclipse plumage or a mallard black duck hybrid.
thats the downside of hunting the dakotas the birds are still molting and growing in new feathers so the look funny sometimes…but they eat just as good and shoot a hell of alot better than around here
19’ Key West CC 140 Johnson
16’ War Eagle 40 Yami
12’ Alumacraft 1954 Johnson 5.5
can you swim 5 miles? “NO” then what is the difference in 5 miles and 50 miles!!! Go for it!
i believe that is a mallard drake with the eclipse plumage. As early as it is you can get quite a few!
Eclipse plumage for sure
Probably a late “bloomer”. It was shot around Nov 5th. By then they have their winter plumage. None the less it’s a weird duck because all the mallards we saw and shot had 100% of their color. We saw thousands of ducks too…
Late hatch green top
bulletsrcheap